Abstract
Studies on literature review (LR) methodology appear scant. Researchers have outlined common challenges associated with the LR process. Traditionally, conducting a LR entails paraphrasing existing studies. Researchers have failed to address the emergent nature of literature and how to deal with this challenge effectively. We analyzed the challenges of conducting a LR of published articles. Also, we collected data from postgraduate students in China. Using the five-level Qualitative Data Analysis and the learning heuristics of the translation process, we matched the units of analytical tasks of the LR at the strategy level to their selected and constructed components at the tactics level. A post-test analysis shows that this model explains 72% of the variance in the new strategy .
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adu, P.: A step-by-step guide to qualitative data coding. Routledge (2019). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351044516-11
Feak, C.B., Swales, J.M.: Telling a Research Story: Writing a Literature Review. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (2009)
Badenhorst, C.: Citation practices of postgraduate students writing literature reviews. Lond. Rev. Educ. 16(1), 121–135 (2018a). https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.16.1.11
Badenhorst, C.: Graduate student writing: complexity in literature reviews. Stud. Grad. Postdr. Educ. 9(1), 58–74 (2018b). https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-D-17-00031
Bitchener, J., Basturkmen, H.: Perceptions of the difficulties of postgraduate L2 thesis students writing the discussion section. J. Engl. Acad. Purp. 5(1), 4–18 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2005.10.002
Boote, D.N., Beile, P.: Scholars before researchers: on the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educ. Res. 34(6), 3–15 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034006003
Brick, J., Herke, M., Wong, D.: Academic Culture: A Student’s Guide to Studying at University, 3rd edn. Macmillan Publishers, NewYork (2016)
Chen, D.-T.V., Wang, Y.-M., & Lee, W.C.: Challenges confronting beginning researchers in conducting literature reviews. Stud. Contin. Educ. 38(1), 47–60 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2015.1030335
Froese, A.D., Gantz, B.S., Henry, A.L.: Teaching students to write literature reviews: a meta-analytic model. Teach. Psychol. 25(2), 102–105 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2502_4
Galvan, J.L., Galvan, M.C.: Writing Literature Reviews: a Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Routledge, NewYork (2017)
Gibson, J.: The ecological approach to visual perception. Behav. Sci. 26(3), 308–309 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830260313
Golde, C.M.: Signature pedagogies in doctoral education: are they adaptable for the preparation of education researchers? Educ. Res. 36(6), 344–351 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X07308301
Granello, D.H.: Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: using bloom’s taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews. Couns. Educ. Superv. 40(4), 292–307 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6978.2001.tb01261.x
Hassan, M.D., Castanha, R.C.G., Wolfram, D.: Scientometric analysis of global trypanosomiasis research: 1988–2017. J. Infect. Public Health 13(4), 514–520 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2019.10.006
HEDC. Writing a literature review (479/8801). hedc.otago.ac.nz (2017)
Hidalgo, H., Funderburk, R.R.M.: Writing the literature review: two Mexican novice writers’ challenges. Rhetor. Prof. Commun. Glob. 6(1), 38–55 (2014)
Holbrook, A.: “Levels” of success in the use of the literature in a doctorate. South Afr. J. High. Educ. 21(8), 1020–1041 (2007)
IEEE: IEEE standard for software and system test documentation. IEEE Std 829–2008 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEESTD.2008.4578383
ISO. Information and documentation - digital object identifier system. International organization for standardization - 26324:2012(En). (2012) https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:26324:ed-1:v1:en
Jafar Jalali, S.M., Mahdizadeh, E., Mahmoudi, M.R., Moro, S.: Analytical assessment process of e-learning domain research between 1980 and 2014. Int. J. Manag. Educ. 12(1), 43 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMIE.2018.10008710
Jalali, S.M.J., Park, H.W.: State of the art in business analytics: themes and collaborations. Qual. Quant. 52(2), 627–633 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0522-7
Jalali, S.M.J., Raeesi Vanani, I.: A comparative study of emerging scientific themes in business analytics. Int. J. Bus. Inf. Syst. 28(1), 1 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBIS.2018.10009115
Jalali, S.M., Park, H., Raeesi Vanani, I., Kim Hung, P.: Research trends on big data domain using text mining algorithms. Digit. Scholarsh. Humanit. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqaa012
Jesson, J.K., Matheson, L., Lacey, F.M.: Doing your Literature Review Traditional and Systematic Techniques. SAGE Publications Ltd, California (2011)
Kauffman, S.: At Home in the Universe: the Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1995)
Krawczyk, D.C.: Chapter 11 - decision making and abductive reasoning. In: Krawczyk, D.C. (ed.) Reasoning, pp. 255–282. Academic Press, Cambridge (2018)
Lee, C., Shin, J., Hong, A.: Does social media use really make people politically polarized? Direct and indirect effects of social media use on political polarization in South Korea. Telemat. Inform. 35(1), 245–254 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.11.005
Luttwak, E.: Strategy: the Logic of War and Peace. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge (2001)
Machi, L.A., McEvoy, B.T.: The Literature Review : Six Steps to Success, 3rd edn. SAGE Publications Ltd, California (2016)
Meng, A. Y.: A study of different discourse patterns preferred by native -English and native -Chinese graduate students in written English [University of Massachusetts Amherst]. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9950185 (1999)
Pallant, J.: SPSS Survival Manual: a Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS, 6th edn. OpenUniversityPress/McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead (2016)
Pan, M.L.: Preparing Literature Reviews: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 5th edn. Routledge: Taylor & Francis, NewYork (2016) https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315265872
QSR. What is NVivo? QSR International. https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/what-is-nvivo (2019)
Ray, K.: Algorithm capability and applications in artificial intelligence. ProQuest/UMI, Ann Arbor (2011)
Silver, C., Woolf, N.: Qualitative Analysis Using NVivo: the Five-Level QDA Method, 1st edn. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, NewYork (2017)
Snyder, H.: Literature review as a research methodology: an overview and guidelines. J. Bus. Res. 104, 333–339 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
Swart, A.J.: Citation analysis of master dissertations at the Central University of Technology, South Africa. Afr. J. Libr. Arch. Inf. Sci. 29(2), 115 (2019)
Tabachnick, B.G., Fidell, L.S.: Using Multivariate Statistics, 6th edn. Harper and Row, Pearson Education, New York (2013)
Terry, M., Terry, D.: The challenges of conducting literature reviews in research: attempting to stand on the shoulders of giants. In: Le, T., Le, Q. (eds.) Conducting Research in Changing and Challenging World. Nova Science Publishers, NewYork (2013)
Victor Chen, D.-T., Wang, Y.-M., Lee, W.C.: Challenges confronting beginning researchers in conducting literature reviews. Stud. Contin. Educ. 38(1), 47–60 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2015.1030335
Warburton, J., Macauley, P.: Wrangling the literature: quietly contributing to HDR completions. Aust. Acad. Res. Libr. 45(3), 159–175 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2014.928992
Funding
Not applicable
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Availability of data and material
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kofi Frimpong, A., Li, P., Amoah, M. et al. From the algorithmic and emergent mindset to the heuristic mindset of reviewing literature. Qual Quant 55, 1419–1455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01065-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01065-8